Grime's Graves is a large Neolithicflint mining complex near Brandon in England close to the border between Norfolk and Suffolk. It was worked between circa 3000 BC and circa 1900 BC, although production may have continued well into the Bronze and Iron Ages (and later) owing to the low cost of flint compared with metals. Flint was much in demand for making stone axes in the Neolithic period. Flint nodules were always in demand for other uses, such as for building and as strikers for muskets.
The scheduled monument extends over an area of some 37 ha (96 acres) and consists of at least 433 shafts dug into the natural chalk to reach seams of flint. The largest shafts are more than 14 m (40 feet) deep and 12 m in diameter at the surface. It has been calculated that more than 2,000 tonnes of chalk had to be removed from the larger shafts, taking 20 men around five months, before stone of sufficient quality was reached. An upper 'topstone' and middle 'wallstone' seam of flint was dug through on the way to the deeper third 'floorstone' seam which most interested the miners.

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A British scholar challenges the conventional view of the Stone Age as minimally civilized, pointing out the many advances of its peoples, from their maps of the constellations to their innovations in boat building.

12. Grimes. Graves. If the religious and astronomical purposes of the great
megaliths and stone circles are not yet fully understood by contemporary
researchers, there is one very old and mysterious site hidden among the forests
of Breckland ...

This edited article about British prehistoric monuments originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 434 published on 9 May 1970.
Stone Age settlement and people working a nearby flint mine by Angus McBride
For centuries the mystery of Grime’s Graves has baffled everyone.